Guest Speaker: Harry Kutty

Harry Kutty

SATURDAY, 18TH OCTOBER 2025.

Harry Kutty is an active and passionate advocate for inclusion in sports. Out of his love of cricket, he believes access to it should be made widely available. His mission includes ensuring that Cricket is an impactful part of a ‘Levelling Up’ agenda. In this respect, he has been deeply involved in setting up Community Cricket Hubs in underprivileged areas of Basingstoke, Portsmouth and Southampton. This initiative (the Hawks City Academy Programme) is part of a strategy to bridge the gap between recreational and elite cricket for under-represented groups. He is currently a Non-Executive Adviser for Hampshire CCC and the Southern Vipers, providing strategic guidance on community engagement initiatives, and as a Director of the Hampshire Cricket Foundation, he serves as an ambassador and non-executive director promoting the positive impact of cricket on education and community development. As a Trustee and Non-Executive Director of Sports Council Trust–the charitable arm of Sport England–he provides strategic oversight of England's National Performance Centres, such as Bisham and Lilleshall.

Harry is Headteacher of Cantell School in Southampton, graded 'Outstanding' in all areas by OFSTED in 2024; Co-chair of the Aspire Community Trust, a Co-operative Trust supporting the life chances of children between the ages of 4-16; Lay Council Member (Civic) at the University of Southampton supporting the strategic direction of the Russell Group University; Trustee and Non-Executive Director of EBP South, a charity focused on connecting young people with the world of work and supporting their career aspirations; and Chairs of the Southampton Schools Forum, and the Neglect Task and Finish group for Southampton City Council, which supports efforts to address and prevent neglect in the community.

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The President introduced Harry who revealed that his wife had asked him, would he be nervous about this talk, to which he replied “well, no, I talk all the time. I'm quite good at talking, actually, but when I say good at talking it was only after I reflected that I thought, I've never actually really talked about myself”.

So he added instead “I am very nervous because you've had some incredible speakers and then you've got me”. As was preparing for the talk he contacted one of his good friends, Rod Bransgrove, Chairman of Hampshire Cricket, to ask for “tips” to which Rod replied, “drink plenty of red wine”. But Harry suspects that is generally Rod’s solution to most events so he proceeded, emphasising what a pleasure it was to be at Hambledon.

He told us something of his work as the Head Teacher of Cantell School, while also running a cooperative trust of nine schools with an aim to shape the life chances of about 3,000 young people from the age of 4 to 16, most of whom come from inner-city Southampton and most sadly, from socio-economically deprived backgrounds. Years ago, the school was not one that people wanted to send their children to; it was very much undersubscribed with lots of issues and rightly had a poor reputation.

Harry took on the challenge and in March 2024, they were given an ‘outstanding’ rating in every judgment category which was “great for the students” and also the staff and the wider community and there was at least one unexpected benefit locally when as a result of the grading, house prices increased by 13% above the rate of inflation.

Harry chose to talk about his two passions “aside from my two wonderful daughters and my wife”: Education and Cricket, suggesting the two sit very comfortably alongside each other. His education career started in 1999, in a very challenging inner-city school in Reading, and he identified an horrific life-changing moment on 7 May 2005, when he was Head of Lower School and one of his students, Mary Anne, was murdered in Prospect Park opposite the school. Although she was in the Lower School, it was a gangland murder by people from the centre of London and Harry recalled it as “very challenging for us all as a community”. For him it was “life- changing” because up to that point, teaching had been a job, but then it became something much more than that; he became determined to “make a difference” for young people.

In the following year, (2006) the school was involved in a drama and dance competition called ‘Rock Challenge’ promoting the idea that young people can experience a drug and alcohol-free ‘high’ through performances. Harry was the senior leader responsible for the arts and took a group but as well as overseeing the students he was sent because BBC South was following the school at the time to do a follow-up on Mary Anne. Their rock challenge performance was on gangland crime at a highly emotive time and the school did very well but did not win. Harry was very proud of the students but the competition was won by Cantell School in Southampton yet when Harry asked about that school nobody could tell him a positive thing about it. They had just won this competition but everyone seemed negative about the school, so that would be less than encouraging for any a young person attending that school?

At that point he made a conscious decision that if a job came up there he would go for it and the next year that happened; he became assistant headteacher, telling us, “it meant so much to me to get this job. His shared his aim for young people to have an exceptional experience day-in and day-out, but also for them to make memories and friendships for a lifetime adding “I think it's so important that the five years that young people are in secondary education, that they make memories and friendships for a lifetime for me”. He suggested ‘great schools are built on three things: great people, strong systems and structures, while ultimately, the most important thing is a fantastic culture”. This culture would have no ‘glass ceilings’, a culture of high expectations, where young people that go to the local state schools can achieve as well and experience as much, if not better than the local independent school. “I've always been driven for that to be the case” and is proud that last year Cantrell had 782 applications for 260 places.

“The students are exactly the same from those years ago but what we're doing with them is very different” Harry is moving into his 10th year of headship now, and he sees two options in terms of career progression, to become a CEO of a multi-academy trust, or continue being a headteacher who loves teaching. He has started to build a non-executive portfolio around social justice, levelling-up, and primarily around young people, making sure that young people have equality of access no matter which postcode they're born in, no matter where they live, or which school they go to; “it's important for them to have equality of access”. He suggested “lots of politicians have used the term levelling up, yet we don't see really any levelling up, which needs to come from the community - we cannot depend upon others to make that happen”.

Harry told us of his upbringing. His father moved to the UK in 1967 and married his mum in 1971 but their qualifications meant nothing; they had to start again. They lived with their children in council housing – Harry remembered  one place in Leyton, London, which was a bit like Mandela House from Only Fools and Horses, if not worse. It was “a real challenge” for him but “I learned a lot” and most powerfully how different people from different places, with different mindsets and different opinions, can get on.

He described the current two themes at Cantrell the first of which is empathy; “I think that we as a society, are losing a little bit of empathy” and the second which goes alongside that is “agreeing to disagree. We're not always going to agree, but that's fine”. What Harry wants is for young people to have a discussion and perhaps agree to disagree because they are the next generation, and he wants them to show people that we can be better.

In terms of the non-executive portfolio, cricket, means a lot to Harry. He started playing cricket, about the age of 11 and he fell in love with it and couldn't play enough. By now the family were living in Grimsby “a bit of a strange, journey from Leyton to Grimsby” but he feels of Grimsby as his home, and he played cricket all across north-east Lincolnshire, in the Bradford League, and leagues in Staffordshire and Cheshire League. He played cricket constantly to the point where in July 1999, he was diagnosed with anterior compartments syndrome, where the stress that you put on your legs, on the other side of your shins, is too great for the sheath that covers it. That requires either a set of steroid injections or an operation and Harry was resigned to the fact that I was going to get this operation done. But when the Operation date came as 29 December 1999, he decided he was not going to miss the biggest ‘knees-up’ of all time, so he gave up football, and carried on with cricket, just playing a little bit more leisurely.

So, now he was in Hampshire and he has been involved with the Club over the past six years, and feels “extremely privileged” to call Rod (Bransgrove) David (Mann) and ‘Chalky’ (Giles White), and others very good friends. With them he set about looking at increasing the numbers of young people from state schools in what he sees as a “highly elitist sport” which should not be so but is, simply because there are far too many barriers.

He spoke of “diversity” and “that Report” adding, “if I can be candid, there are aspects of that report that I think are nonsense. I don't believe cricket is rotten to the core … I don't believe that, but I think that there are things that we can do better” . He suggested we need to address social disadvantage, trying to get young people from the most challenging background involved in sports and he wishes to do that because cricket is a “starting point” which can raise confidence, self-esteem, and build teamwork.

He suggested that progress can be seen from launching the Hawks in an inner city cricket academy, which aims to bridge the gap between recreational and elite cricket. They started the project for those young people that don't get opportunities at Cantel School, and then moved it on to Basingstoke (Brighton Hill) and then Portsmouth (Priory School) with the intention to go further north towards Aldershot to make sure that we are giving those opportunities. After three years they have young people very close to getting onto the pathways programme, not least because they are so proud to wear the Hampshire Crest. But he asked, “would we say that's the case for every young person that goes on to play county cricket?” And he is not sure. In school they have also seen the young cricketers’ work ethic has improved, their aspirations have improved, what they think they can do has improved.

They are really proud of the programme and looking to expand it, supported by the Hampshire Cricket Foundation of which Harry is a trustee. The next aim is to focus on girls, as a legacy of the T20 World Cup, which is being held in 2026. So that there are girls from state schools taking part more in cricket, for the reasons that I've given you. For Harry, legacy is important in particular with levelling-up.

Harry is also a non-exec at what's called the Sports Council Trust which is a charitable line of sport, England with responsibility for the National Performance Centres of Bisham Abbey, and elsewhere. He spoke of Bisham beautiful and very close to inner-city London but how many people from there are accessing it? “The answer's zero. So what can we do?”. The excuses are “it's a bit too far, Harry” so he answers “let's get some coaches” but they will cost money so “let’s raise some money” and they ask “How?” He replies “we'll get some investors” and then spoke with enthusiasm about connecting businesses in the corporate sector with education, suggesting that I think there's too much that starts post-16 when we need to inspire young people to the world of work much earlier.

He spoke then about working with businesses in the South, brilliant companies that want to help but don't have the “connectivity”. So he reveals that he does not want to be a CEO because it takes him away from what he loves doing, which is “being around students and staff and making a difference and being able to see that”. So he concluded

I'm determined to continue to make a difference for the life-chances of young people and beyond. It's just about us helping each other and being really kind and I think we need a bit more empathy and being able to agree to disagree. Hopefully, if we can do that with this generation, we'll have a better country and the world would be a better place.

After some questions and discussion, Harry concluded with thoughts about his day with us at the Bat & Ball and Broadhalfpenny Down:

Can I just say before I finish? I've loved it today. And I think you are all magnificent; the quality of the conversation is quite exceptional and this must continue. Perhaps I might be able to help, but I was saying to Dave and Terry, I almost wish I hadn't brought my car because I could just stay here all night and drink, drink, drink, drink and listen about it. It is so exceptional - and just thank you, and yes, I hope to see you again. Thank you.